With many present day aircraft, and particularly military aircraft such as military rotorcraft, various important flight control weapons and sensor switches are located on the "collective" or the "side arm" controller (commonly known as "grips") in the cockpit of the aircraft. With military fly-by-wire aircraft, such aircraft are extremely responsive to small inputs on the collective and side arm controller. The crew member who is not flying the aircraft (i.e., the "non-pilot" crew member) cannot therefore make any control inputs. More specifically, the non-pilot crew member cannot have his/her hands on the collective or side arm controller.
To address the above-described problem, some aircraft dedicate large amounts of panel space to replicate the grip switches. However, in many aircraft, such as military rotorcraft which make use of small cockpits having a large amount of glass, the amount of available control panel surface for mounting additional flight control, weapons control and sensor switches is highly restricted.
Another drawback with cockpits of military aircraft is that they are often extremely small and do not always allow for positioning or laying out of the various displays used in the aircraft for maximum ergonomic convenience. Often, the required locations of various controls that are needed for the pilot and/or crew member to enter text data to support digital communications are not located physically close to where the entered data ultimately appears on a related display system in the cockpit. This can also contribute to increased crew stress and significantly increased eye and hand motions for performing the needed flight and weapons control inputs and the inputs for controlling the various sensors of the aircraft.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide some form of portable or hand-holdable controller which would permit the non-pilot crew member of an aircraft to enter flight control data and/or commands, weapons systems commands and/or other various commands relating to control of the sensors of the aircraft without having to access the related controls on the grips of the aircraft, and further without requiring additional controls, displays or other items to be mounted on the control panel of the aircraft.
It would also be highly desirable to provide a portable controller capable of being easily held by the non-pilot crew member or easily rested on a leg of the non-pilot crew member, and which further may be configured to communicate with selected flight and/or weapons control systems remotely so as not to interfere with operation of the same controls by the crew member piloting the aircraft, and further without requiring the controller to be disconnected and reconnected at various interface points on the control panel of the aircraft.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a portable controller which is very compact, low in weight, includes a keyboard and other various controls, and allows the non-pilot crew member access to and control over the various flight and/or weapons control systems of the aircraft without interfering with use of those control systems by the crew member piloting the aircraft.